"We should speak clearly, forthrightly and call our leaders back to honesty. We should demand the truth, and refuse to be put to sleep. And those 'leaders' who play those games must also be put to shame, and out to pasture."
RC Sproul Jr on "Spin" in Every Thought Captive, Vol. 5, Issue 5

Monday, February 13, 2006

RC Sproul Jr's Bizarre Pastoral Style

Former Saint Peter Presbyterian Church attendee, Dennis Cochran (aka Dennis The Poet) has today gone public with the eighteen-page letter he mailed to Westminster Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly on December 15, 2005. Mr. Cochran states,

"It's only right for people to be told. The SPPC false shepherds continue in their flagrant rebellion against God. Let their deeds of darkness be exposed and the saints be warned."

Dennis had good cause to notify the RPCGA. He, like any number of other individuals and families, found himself the victim of spiritual abuse and ecclesiastical tyranny at the hands of RC Sproul Jr and his cronies. Such abuses of authority have been taking place since the origins of St. Peter Presbyterian Church. However few have been willing to openly challenge Sproul for what Dennis calls "spiritual rape."

On top of all the other abuses Dennis Cochran was slandered by RC Sproul Jr in the May/June 2004 edition of the Highlands Study Center periodical, Every Thought Captive. The article was entitled, The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn. Mr. Cochran was also caricatured on the cover in a none-too flattering way. Just to make it more than apparent who the article was targeting, RC Sproul Jr included one of his infamous Open Letters, this one beginning with "Dear Dennis."

It wouldn't be the first time that Sproul had used the tax-deductible contributions of his financial supporters to engage in malicious and vindictive attacks against fellow believers in Christ Jesus -- truly bizarre conduct for an ordained minister of the gospel. In point of fact RC Sproul Jr has used his Every Thought Captive magazine to publish quite a few malicious "Open Letters" and, just like the Dear Dennis letter most of them were self-serving, self-righteous, and replete with fabrications and outright lies.

Mr. Cochran's letter to the Westminster Presbytery of the RPCGA can be found at:

I'm a former attendee of St. Peter Presbyterian Church. My stay at St. Peter was only two and a half months. Though brief it was the most horrible church experience of my life.

I believe that these men are in no way fit to be ordained by your denomination, or anyone else's, as pastors or elders.

The trauma of the spiritual rape I experienced while associated with Saint Peter Presbyterian Church and its results will hopefully be made clear by the end of this letter.

When you are already suicidal because two "pastors" messed with your mind and convinced you to go off your medicine, seeing them slander and ridicule you in print before the entire world might have been the last straw for me. Since that time, the Burtons too were the subject of an ETC article. R.C. and Laurence have a long history of publicly maligning and slandering people.

During the first meeting we had arranged to meet one morning after a Tuesday morning men's breakfast gathering at Bonnie's Restaurant. My plan going into the meeting was to tell Sproul and Windham I had decided to not become a member of St. Peter and that I would go check out some other local Reformed church such as Abingdon Presbyterian. I expected to part from them on friendly terms. The other men had departed leaving just Sproul, Windham and I. I very briefly told them my plan and added in a jocular manner, "I bet that was the shortest meeting you ever had." In seeking to justify what follows Windham at a later date accused me of being disrespectful in making this joking comment but I was not. What followed was dead silence and the most utterly cold demeanor I had ever witnessed in any human being. Then the taller block of ice, Windham, spoke. "You are now persona non grata. You are not to speak to my people. They will be told not to speak to you." Earlier in the OL they stated that they had no authority over me since I wasn't a member. Yet Windham just presumed to TELL me I wasn't allowed to speak to "his people."

I was utterly stunned. I honestly didn't see it coming. After another bit of dead silence I stammered, "Isn't that a bit cultish?" That was the first time I ever even considered using any form of the word "cult" in regard to St. Peter. I don't remember what little if anything was said after that. I was too dazed. Sproul and Windham left and I paced around in an area behind the building. As I did the pieces of the puzzle came together in my mind and I saw that I had indeed just escaped from joining a cult.

And this is perhaps the most astonishing revelation in all of Mr. Cochran's letter:

Only recently was I informed of something else that had happened at that meeting which only further confirms to me that St. Peter Presbyterian Church is not a church, but a cult. One of the men at breakfast with R.C. and Laurence just prior to my meeting with them, Rick Saenz, says that he was present when one of the men asked R.C. about the contents of a plastic carrying case R.C. had on the table in front of him. R.C. responded, "Oh, that's my gun. We're having a meeting later with Dennis. I want to be ready for him in case anything goes wrong." I guess I'm just unfamiliar with the practice of pastors taking guns into meetings with them in public restaurants. Does the RPCGA condone this? Considering the fact that it was R.C. and Laurence that told me to stop taking my meds, perhaps they thought that I would be unstable and perhaps even violent (why else would R.C. have had the gun there?). But if that were their concern, why did they tell me to stop taking my meds in the first place?

We're also unfamiliar, Mr. Cochran, with the practice of pastors taking concealed firearms into meetings with them into public restaurants. This raises an interesting legal question. Does RC Sproul Jr have a Concealed Handgun Permit? For any who were planning on having any meetings with RC Sproul Jr they might want to think twice about it. We're also unfamiliar with the practice of pastors giving medical advice to their parishioners. How are Sproul and Windham in any way qualified to be giving medical advice? Such behavior is reckless, irresponsible and completely outrageous. The RPCGA had grounds for defrocking these men just on that basis alone.

It was my responsibility to get away from a couple of dangerously manipulative individuals and warn others about them and their ways.

They in fact have a reputation for cruelty and lack of compassion in general that continues to grow. Even a cursory reading of their materials reveals a disturbing pattern of defensiveness that ought to give one pause.

Thus spake the prophets who receive their daily bread in part by potential criminal fraud and certainly through deceit as they make unwarranted accusations against me in regard to my meager income.

Scripture also tells us that those who hate their fellow believers while they say they love God show themselves to be liars who love neither. Their hateful abuse of members of God's household who threaten their house of cards belies their empty claims toward loving them or God.

"Fairness" is not a trait I readily associate with these two "pastors." They certainly didn't sit me down and say, "Well, here's the deal. We're a pair of cult leaders. We abuse people shamelessly and publicly slander them if we think it serves our purposes. We're egomaniacal charlatans. Sound good to you? Still wanna join?"

At this point, considering their unblushing gossip and slander in regard to me and others and the unremitting arrogance for which their are known among many, one has to wonder if they themselves have ever done an honest day's work in their lives if honest labor does indeed thwart such tendencies as they say it does. And I so far agree with them about the benefits of work.

They're afraid I'll help at least partially knock down their house of cards. I'll gladly destroy the ability of wicked men to ensnare souls and wolfishly wound the brethren. I'll gladly build up those they have victimized by offering my understanding and support.

Free men don't delight in anyone being enslaved to brutal, deceitful dictators. So I've spent hours thinking about, composing and editing this letter. I don't want anyone to go through what others and I have at the hands of these ruthless thugs. I delight in the freedom others and I have gained in escaping them and the freedom to be gained or retained by others by escaping or being warned off them.

And this significant revelation on the real reason why the PCA refused to ordain RC Sproul Jr:

R.C. has long lied about why he was rejected for PCA ordination. A Presbyterian elder by the name of ___________ who was part of R.C.'s examination finds R.C.'s version of the story most amusing. Mr. ________ also finds it amusing that an ex-convict who had served ten years in San Quentin successfully passed his PCA examination on the very same day as R.C. failed his.

R.C.'s lie was one designed to make Sproul seem as if he was being persecuted for bravely standing up for his beliefs. Even if he suspected ulterior motives on the part of any within the PCA, if they cited his educational insufficiencies as cause it is deceitful to simply fail to mention it even if one might hear both sides and question if there really were such motives. True, it is more appealing to be thought of as a brave martyr than someone who had simply been judged as undereducated. But you risk being thought a liar when the truth comes out.

Mr. Cochran closes with:

I'm deeply troubled by the possibility that the RPCGA will allow R.C. and Laurence to continue functioning as ordained pastors within its denomination. I cannot see how any good can come to the RPCGA and, based upon personal experience, I can only see that they will continue to damage and harm many other people, as they did me. The next person they tell to stop taking their meds might just suicide.

That's no longer an issue as it directly effects the RPCGA. They've stripped Sproul and Windham of their ordinations and shown them to the exit door ("Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"). But Sproul and Windham haven't taken the hint and sought out other employment. No, they're still pretending to be pastors. It looks like they're trying to find a way of getting reordained in another denomination, and we feel sorry for the denomination that's gullible enough to put their imprimatur on these clowns.

It's not the prerogative of any pastor to tell someone to stop taking their medications. Who do these arrogant creeps think they are? Sproul and Windham are a walking lawsuit. Any denomination that takes these morons in is just asking to get caught up in some big time litigation.

4 Comments:

The drooling retard above would make me rush to become a Presbyterian because I'd at least know the moron count would be low. But I'm sure that was R.C. Sproul Jr. (who isn't really a Jr. since his middle name is Craig. Going on daddy's coattails perhaps?) or some assistant of his. No random person would be that stupid after what was written above. You are a cultist scum who will eventually be hellbound. Enjoy it there.

It's 2017 and Ligionier is doing well! RC Sproul is a godly man as is his son. We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. ALL preachers, theologians appear hypocritical because none can fully practice what the preach! If any could they would not need Our Savior The Christ!May God soften your heart that you would love these Christian men. We all make mistakes friend, it is painful at times but God forgives us as should you.

Jerry, we have a difference of opinion on what qualifies as a "godly man." RC Sproul Jr is not a godly man. Godly men aren't drunkards, nor are they known to get arrested for drunk driving at more than twice the legal limit with two minor children in the car. His years of drinking binges finally caught up with him, culminating in a DUI arrest. This is far more egregious than a mere "mistake." It's something that, with the multiple charges now hanging over his head, could cost him several years in prison.

You also don't seem to appreciate the difference between a man who occasionally only appears to be hypocritical and a man, such as RC Sproul Jr, who is a chronic and habitual hypocrite.

Yes, God forgives... He forgives the repentant -- the man with a humble and contrite spirit. God does not forgive the sins of the unrepentant liar and deceiver who only feigns repentance, such as RC Sproul Jr.